December 31, 2025, 6:13 am | Read time: 3 minutes
After New Year’s Eve, it’s often hard to believe your eyes when you leave your home. The streets are littered with firecracker debris. But who is actually responsible for cleaning up the mess?
Broken bottles on the sidewalks, rocket remnants everywhere, and exploded firecrackers. With New Year’s comes the rude awakening, as a lot of trash is generated on New Year’s Eve–and often just left behind. City cleaning crews have their hands full removing the debris. However, they are not responsible for everything.
Overview
Waste Management Appeals to Citizens
The Association of Municipal Enterprises (VKU) points out that spent fireworks contain various chemicals. These can be washed away by rain or meltwater, polluting soil and water. Therefore, firecracker debris should be disposed of properly as soon as possible.
Often, the remnants of New Year’s fireworks remain for days because cleaning crews can’t keep up. In many places, municipal waste management appeals to those responsible for the firecracker waste every year–but with little success. Especially for trash in public spaces–where fireworks are now banned in many cities–no one seems to feel truly responsible.
Those Who Create Trash Must Also Dispose of It
In fact, the waste management law requires exactly that–everyone must dispose of the trash they create. Furthermore, property owners are urged to maintain the cleanliness of their property, even if they are not the ones who caused the waste.
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Who Is Responsible for a Clean Trash Can?
How to Properly Protect Your Balcony and Terrace from Fireworks on New Year’s Eve
Can Landlords Force Tenants to Clean?
In particularly severe cases, landlords can hire a cleaning service to dispose of the firecracker debris. These costs are not covered by the usual ancillary costs paid by tenants. Therefore, landlords can charge tenants for the extraordinary cleaning. It’s worth keeping things tidy in front of your own door.
Also interesting: What can house rules prescribe?
How to Properly Dispose of Firecracker Debris
Even with the remnants of New Year’s Eve, waste separation is important. Plastic packaging and protective caps go in the yellow bag or recycling bin. Paper or cardboard packaging belongs in the paper waste, or the blue bin. But where do the remnants of firecrackers and rockets go?
The VKU points out that fireworks must not be burning, hot, or warm, as the remaining waste in the bin could ignite. Rockets and similar items should only be disposed of when there are no embers left and everything is completely cooled down.
With material from dpa